Someone who gossips well has a reputation for being good company or even a wit, never for being a gossip.

The closer and more confidential our relationship with someone, the less we are entitled to ask about what we are not voluntarily told.

It is disgusting to pick your teeth; what is vulgar is to use a gold toothpick.

The essence of the expert is that his field shall be very special and narrow: one of the ways in which he inspires confidence is to rigidly limit himself to the little toe; he would scarcely venture an off-the-record opinion on an infected little finger.

Doubtless a good general rule for close friendships, where confidences are freely exchanged, is that what one is not informed about, one may not inquire about.

One of the saddest things about conformity is the ghastly sort of non-conformity it breeds; the noisy protesting, the aggressive rebelliousness, the rigid counter-fetishism.

Highly educated bores are by far the worst; they know so much, in such fiendish detail, to be boring about.